Kris Longknife's Relief by Mike Shepherd

Author:Mike Shepherd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KL&MM Books

20

Sandy got back to the Victory to discover that there were more problems waiting for her.

“The Ruby and Opal out of Hekate jumped into the system just after you left,” her Chief of Staff told her. “Any messages from them should be coming in any moment.”

“I’ll be taking a shower,” Sandy told him. “After what I just saw, I need to get clean. If the message can’t wait, bring it to me in the shower.”

“Yes, ma’am. Was it that bad?”

“Bad enough to make me feel filthy right through my space armor,” she answered.

He shivered. “We don’t have video up here yet.”

“Don’t watch it before you sack out,” Sandy said. “It’s the stuff of nightmares.”

“Bastards,” was all the Chief of Staff could say.

In her private head, Sandy slipped out of the sweat-soaked ship suit she’d worn under her armor. Her Navy issue bra and panties quickly joined them on the floor as she turned on the water. It was warm almost immediately. She stepped into the shower and closed the thin door that kept most of the water in.

She’d been asked if she wanted it clear or opaque. She’d chosen opaque. She didn’t expect to be sharing her private head with anyone, but she knew message traffic would likely catch her in the shower a time or twelve.

Her hair was full of suds and her eyes were closed against them when a male voice asked, “May I come in, Admiral?”

“Won’t it keep?” she asked her Chief of Staff.

“Ma’am, I don’t want to carry the responsibility for delaying this message.”

“Enter,” Sandy said as she put her face under the water and cleaned it of soap. She shook the water off her face and said, “What’s the message, Van?”

“These two battlecruisers entered a system five conventional jumps out from here. They intended to post a buoy at that jump and come back. However, they did conduct a survey of the system. They found an alien fast-mover orbiting a gas giant close to the most distant jump out of the system. No sooner did they spot the alien than it broke orbit and headed for the jump. They took off after it, but it accelerated all the way to the jump and hit it fast. They figured any chase would be a long one. After the trap the aliens set for you, they kind of didn’t want to get too carried away. They brought this straight to us, using a close-by fuzzy jump.”

Sandy cut the water off; she could survive a bit of leftover soap. “Could you hand me that towel?” she asked.

He did and she toweled off, thinking furiously and out loud.

“So, they know we’re here.”

“It could have just been a stray cruiser,” Van offered.

“I don’t believe in coincidences where those bastards are concerned. Not after what I saw down there. No. We’ve dishonored their trophy room. They’ve really messed the place up, leaving a whole lot of rotting bodies strewn all over the place. They’ve blown away all our pickets, so they know we tend to set up alarms around us.

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